AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Maggie wasn’t letting me get away with shit either. I frowned as I thought that and hit the stairs. I needed to stop comparing Alice and Maggie. There wasn’t a reason to, and I wouldn’t be getting involved with either of them, so it was a moot point.
When I got through security at the airport, I found Jake pacing like he usually did while he spoke on the phone. Even in his office, he was restless when he talked. The man was so damn high-strung that after being in his presence for a few hours, you were exhausted. It was like he used all of his energy and then fed off you to get more. I sure hoped that this meeting went quickly, I was already exhausted, and we haven’t even left yet.
After he hung up, he came to stand next to me as I surveyed the crowd. “Took you long enough.”
“I’m here, relax already.”
“What happened with that incident this morning?”
“Two subjects robbed the jewelry store on Market; for some reason instead of fleeing the area, they came into the coffee shop and decided to take hostages.”
“I heard one got away.”
“Yeah, but Maggie gave them a good description.”
“Who is Maggie?”
“She was in there with me. I knew her in high school, dated her back then. Haven’t seen her in nineteen years.”
He chuckled slightly. “Small world.”
“Yeah, it is.”
A few minutes later, we were boarding the plane, and luckily Jake hated flying commercial. He was tall and couldn’t stand the cramped seats. Because of that, we were going first class. It was one of the benefits of traveling with the boss.
We discussed things on our way down and devised a plan of attack, along with the essential points to make them aware of the security and loss risks. Our meeting was supposed to have been this evening, but it got moved to the morning. That’s what Jake had been dealing with when I arrived at the airport. He was on the phone with Alice making sure we had hotel reservations and a car to pick us up.
The flight was quick, and our ride was waiting for us near the luggage pickup. Sixty-five minutes after we landed, we were walking into the lobby of our hotel, and Jake checked us in and gave me my key.
“We aren’t sharing a room, are we?” I asked him as we approached the elevator.
“Oh, hell no. I haven’t shared a room with anyone since my last deployment five years ago.”
I was glad to hear that. The last thing I wanted was to deal with his hyper ass all night long.
“I have a few calls to make. I’ll meet you in the lounge at seven, and we can grab dinner,” he said as we got off the elevator.
“Sounds good to me.”
Inside my room, I set my duffel down, tossed my computer back on the bed, and then kicked off my shoes. I got settled on the bed and dug into my computer bag, pulling out everything, including the photo I had printed before I left. I carefully folded the paper around the picture to give it sharp creases and slowly tore away the excess paper. When it was complete, I pulled the small notebook out of my pants pocket and dug around in the back pocket. Behind my license, a credit card and my retired military credentials was Maggie’s junior year high school picture.
It was tattered and dog-eared, but in decent shape for all the miles it had on it. I held the two pictures side by side. Maggie had been so pretty in high school, and her beauty had done nothing but grow over the years. I stared at them for a long moment before I folded the printed picture in half and put them both back into my little notebook.
I didn’t know why I did that, but for some reason, it felt right. Putting Maggie out of my mind, I focused on my work and spent an hour catching up on emails before I went to meet Jake for dinner.
Every once in a while, her image would come to mind, and I’d wave it away again. I didn’t need a distraction. My job was too critical, and if I let myself be, I could totally be distracted by Maggie.
Part of me almost wished that I hadn’t run into her again, but then there was that other part of me that told me that I would be a complete idiot not to take advantage of this second chance.
I was used to war in the world, but I hated being at war with myself.
Chapter Ten
Maggie
Iwas in my room, digging through a box I’d pulled from the attic when my mother wandered into my room. “What are you doing, sweetheart?”
“Oh, hi, Mom. How was your day?” I asked, happy to see she was lucid and smiling today. Over the last week, she had been a little more confused than usual, and fretful. As if she knew she was confused and not sure why. I hated this disease. Hated that it robbed her of her life and memories, and hated that it stole my strong-willed, active mother.
